Courses
Fall 2013 Schedule of Classes
U ED. 70001 - Urban Ed Core Colloquium
GC: W, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Rm. TBA, 1 credit, Prof. Garcia, [21982] Course open to Urban
Education doctoral students only.
U ED. 70400 - Pedagogy and Urban Classroom
GC: W, 4:15-6:15 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Anyon, [21983] Course open to Urban Education doctoral students only.
U ED. 70600 - Introduction to Research in Urban Ed
GC: R, 4:15-6:15 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Picciano, [21984] Course open to Urban Education doctoral students only.
U ED. 71200 - Critical Literacies in Education
GC: W, 2:00-4:00p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Garcia, [21985]
This course engages with the possibilities that literacies offer for social change, economic equity, and political enfranchisement. It considers literacies as social practices related to broader social and political concerns that includes feminist and poststructuralist orientations, Freirean-based critical pedagogy, and text analytic approaches. Adopting a social approach to literacy and language, this course considers ethnographic studies of literacy in historical, social, and cultural contexts. It also surveys histories of literacy expansion and literacy campaigns worldwide, and evaluates contemporary literacy policies and programs. To do this work, we rely on concepts from and debates in anthropology, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics, as well as critical studies of education.
U ED. 72200 - Multilevel Research in Urban Education: Teaching Methods/Methodology
GC: R, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Tobin, [21986]
The course develops methodology and methods grounded in sociocultural theory that is applicable to research in various settings in which urban education occurs. Within a multi-theoretical framework we review various forms of participant observation that are applicable to meso- and micro-level analyses, and examine complementary methods for analyzing social artifacts, including video and audio files. We address the quality of research in terms of established criteria that probe the extent to which what is learned is viable and applicable to broader contexts. The methods we explore include: conversation analysis; prosody analysis; analysis of facial action; emotions, emotional energy and emotional climate; proxemics, kinesics, and gaze; and the incorporation of research on physiological factors associated with social constructs such as a participation and emotional expression (e.g., breathing patterns, heart rate). The potential for using a variety of hardware and software is explored, including ways of gathering data transmitted via Bluetooth technology (e.g., data transmitted from audience response clickers, oximeters, etc.). We will focus on analytical approaches to making sense of qualitative and quantitative data resources, including the ways in which central tendencies and spread/difference are interpreted.
Recognizing the complexity of macro and global structures and ways in which they saturate social life and what can be learned from research in the social sciences we will examine how leading researchers in New York City, including colleagues in the Graduate Center, take account of macro and global structures and their research. Theoretical standpoints associated with the aggregation of what is learned from multilevel research will be considered. All participants will engage in a research project and incorporate fresh perspectives through personal studies of what is happening in multilevel research.
U ED. 73100 - Research and Theory in Educational Policy Studies
GC: T, 4:15-6:15 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Anyon, [21987]
The purpose of this course is to guide students through preparation of the second doctoral exam and (in some cases) the dissertation proposal as well. The course has a workshop format. Students will assess stellar dissertations, proposals, and second docs written by others. Each student will read and critique the bodies of literature s/he needs for her or his own project. Students read, think, and write continuously, and present their ideas and plans in class. We provide constructive critique. Various tips and strategies are made available. Potential students must contact instructor before registering for this class.
U ED. 75100 - Critical Childhood and Youth Studies
GC: T, 4:15-6:15 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Luttrell, [21992] Cross listed with WSCP 81000.
Critical Childhood Studies (sometimes called the “new sociology/anthropology of childhood” understands youth as social actors who are “central informants of their own life worlds” (Christensen and James 2008). Not incomplete adults but human subjects who have insights, they contribute to as well as are shaped by social institutions. This course will examine the basic tenants of critical childhood studies, including the ways in which it contests the traditional socialization model, which emphasizes children as passive recipients of a unidirectional socialization process. A critical childhood studies approach understands child-adult relationships as existing within power relations-- therefore, Waksler’s (1996) argument that “children do not have the power to correct adults’ misunderstandings of them.” The new sociology of childhood critiques the “old” sociology of childhood that ignored the significant effects of adults always speaking for children, the ease of which “effectively silenced” children. Rejecting neither the idea that children develop nor that children are dependent on adults, the new sociology of childhood suggests, rather, that thinking of the relationship in terms of interdependence rather than deficiency, and acknowledging the lack of authority that children have in their relationships with adults, recognizes the differences in power relations and works toward understanding agency. As Lee (2001) asks, what does it mean to take children seriously? The dangers of romanticizing children’s voice will be considered as well. How does the new sociology of childhood intersect with critical theory, disability studies, feminist theory and critical race theory?
This class will examine the conceptual framework of the new sociology of childhood (and youth), and study its politics and implications for research. It will imagine generational difference as a border, and look at research that enables us to understand children and youth relative to power relations, authority, culture, education and punishment. It will also look at adults with whom children are in relationship, including parents, teachers, police, salespeople, and counselors, as well as the institutions, discourses and systems that shape how childhood is experienced. We will ask methodological questions about how to study children from the standpoint of the new sociology of childhood.
U ED. 75100 - Educating Educators
GC: M, 4:15-6:15 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Michelli, [21993]
In this seminar we will engage in a deep analysis of policy, practice, and research related to how educators are prepared in the United States with special focus on urban education. You will engage in reading, discussion and research around critical questions central to the field including the influence of federal policy, the connection between research and policy, the application of high stakes testing to teacher education, the privatization of teacher education, the rise of alternate pathways to teaching and major changes in accreditation. Class sessions will include, where possible, discussions with leaders in teacher education such as policy makers, researchers, administrators and faculty in teacher education as well as candidates in teacher education programs from a several settings. Many graduates of the Ph.D. program in Urban Education have entered careers as teacher educators. This seminar is designed to give you an "insider view" of the issues surrounding the profession.
U ED. 75100 - Education's Digital Future: Teaching in the Modern University
GC: W, 4:15-6:15 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Profs. Brier/Picciano, [21988]
This seminar will critically examine technology influences on teaching and learning in higher education in the present and in the near future. Online learning, blended learning, social media, MOOCs, open source content, and other elements of modern technology will be examined in terms of their philosophical, pedagogical, social and career implications for faculty in American higher education institutions. This seminar will also adopt a critical lens in examining technology initiatives supported by private interest groups that have come to permeate American education. The seminar facilitators will draw upon a wide range of scholarly readings and electronic media as well as explore practical ramifications of the growing influence of digital technology on teaching and learning.
U ED. 75100 - Language, Culture, and Disability: Psychological Perspectives
GC: M, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Bursztyn, [21989]
This seminar addresses childhood disability in the context of linguistic and cultural diversity in urban schools and communities. The seminar will offer a thematic approach to a range of topics including the roles of language and culture in child and adolescent development; the impact of disability on learning, social integration, and identity formation; and the specific challenges faced by immigrant children with special needs in schools and communities. The aim of this seminar is to study the implications for intervention, teaching and educational policy development with diverse students. The course presents perspectives on language, culture, and disabilities through selected case studies, documentary films and literature.
U ED. 75100 - Qualitative Research Methods
GC: W, 4:15-6:15 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Luttrell, [21990]
U ED. 75100 - Teacher as Researcher
GC: R, 4:15-6:15 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. Alexakos, [21991]
This course explores methodologies and methods of classroom teachers doing inquiry oriented research on their own practice. Teachers as researchers provide a valuable perspective of how knowledge is generated in the classroom. This type of theoretical research is complex, personally sensitive, and labor intensive. The course will include opportunities for all participants to examine issues associated with writing teacher-researcher work, getting published in peer-reviewed journals and books, gaining approval from the IRB, obtaining funding for teacher-researcher projects, and generalizability from teacher-researcher projects (i.e., conceptualized in terms of transforming practice, ripple effects, and generating theory). We will review several inquiry oriented methodologies of teacher centered investigations and discuss ethical and responsive moral frameworks to frame and guide such work. The class itself will be video recorded and will serve as a teaching research resource tool so that we may learn by doing. As part of the course students will be expected to apply what is explored in the course and conduct a short study of their own classroom practices.
See Also:
PHIL. 77600 - Political Philosophy
GC: M, 11:45 a.m.-1:45 p.m., Rm. TBA, 4 credits, Prof. Cahn, [21673] Cross listed with P SC 71903.
PHIL. 77700 - British Moralists
GC: M, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Rm. TBA, 4 credits, Prof. Baumrin, [21674]